England 16 - 12 Scotland: Mental failings are Scots’ undoing

The team produced another great barnstorming performance against their old nemesis that left England, ranked fourth in the world to Scotland’s ninth, contemplating a World Cup knock-out at a wet and windy, but gloriously noisy Eden Park on Saturday.

It was a night when hope blossomed for a rousing Scottish support, but then disappeared late into the dark Auckland sky amid more recriminations. The loss of four scrums and four lineouts to a dominant Scottish forward pack, Allan Jacobsen, Ford and Euan Murray scrummaging well, and a plethora of penalties and free-kicks was at the heart of England’s inability to impose themselves on the game, the Scots having started with a bright intensity that caught England in the headlights.

Al Kellock and Richie Gray dominated the lineout and were strong about the park, and the work of the Scottish back row of John Barclay, Alasdair Strokosch and No 8 Richie Vernon was instrumental in denying Lewis Moody’s England much possession.

They were well supported by a back line picked to attack and who, to a man, seized the ball with a ravenous appetite. Dan Parks, who replaced Ruaridh Jackson who had pulled a hamstring after just four minutes, ran with a conviction that brought back memories of Twickenham in the spring where Scotland pushed their hosts to the last minutes before succumbing 22-16.

But from a 12-3 lead, chasing an eight-point win to knock England out of the tournament and take their place in the quarter-finals, Scotland briefly slipped off the pace and victory was gone.

With Jonny Wilkinson slotting just one penalty from four in the first half, Chris Paterson and Parks turned English indiscipline into a 9-3 interval lead, Parks’ penalty bizarrely requiring the TMO to confirm it had dipped just over the bar before he finished the half with a drop-goal, and Paterson adding three more in the 56th minute.

But this was where disaster struck the Scots in an eerily familiar manner. Wilkinson kicked off following Paterson’s second penalty but the Scottish forwards left the catch to each other, and England seized their chance in the same way Argentina had.

Just as the Pumas set up what proved to the match-winning try, England combined an improving scrum, the tightening lineout and driving maul with this platform to pull themselves into the game.

It beggared belief that Scotland could fail to execute a basic play again, but was it down to poor skills or to mental application? Ford believes the latter.

“It was bitterly disappointing,” he said. “We had the game for a good proportion of it, 70 minutes maybe, but lapses in concentration let them back in. It’s like there’s a level that we’re constantly knocking at, but we can’t burst through it. It’s not massive things that we need to change, just small things – accuracies and being clinical. We created a lot of chances against England, but it’s about finishing them off. There were a lot of positives to take from the performances, but it’s just annoying.”

Scotland did not create many scoring chances, but while their attack did more to stretch England in their own half and across halfway than threaten in the last third, Mike Blair, Sean Lamont and Joe Ansbro being particular stand-outs, it did provoke the kicking chances that put Scotland 12-3 ahead.

The best try chance came in the lead-up to Paterson’s second penalty when Simon Danielli chipped in behind England’s defence. He was just beaten to the ball by Ben Foden, but on the wet surface the England full-back could only swish a hand at it and the ball bobbled towards Nick de Luca.

The Scot, on for the injured Max Evans at half-time, reached to collect it, five metres from the line, but fatally glanced at the on-rushing Wilkinson and knocked the ball on.

Another Wilkinson drop-goal attempt was charged down before a stolen Scottish lineout set up a sixth penalty chance, the second the fly-half converted, to suddenly cut the deficit to three points with 17 minutes to go.

Parks sent a crossfield kick to the left-field and Tom Croft, the fast England blindside, just beat Scots lock Richie Gray to the touchdown over the England line. With the game entering the last five minutes, Parks then went for a move practised for weeks, one the coaches proposed if needing a late try to reach the eight-point winning margin.

It was ‘the bomb’, a high kick on the England posts, or “Hail Mary” according to Martin Johnson. Scotland had worked their way into good position in the England 22, with a fine Parks penalty to touch, and he sent the ball high up to the posts. De Luca lunged for it amid a melee of white shirts, but couldn’t grasp the ball. Delon Armitage did and released Chris Ashton who kicked downfield.

Andy Robinson, the Scotland coach, praised the courage of Parks to take on the kick and his ability to put it exactly where intended, but it also revealed the Scots’ lack of faith in scoring a try when attacking inside the England 22 off their own lineout.

Agonisingly for the Scots, England seized their moment to win the game with just two minutes left. Quick attacking play and forward driving in the centre of the field pulled the Scottish defence in tight and when Toby Flood sent a long looping pass wide to Ashton, the winger’s pace took him careering to the corner, despite Paterson’s last-ditch attempt to deny him.

It was cruel for the Scots, who had kept the England back line at bay all night – the try was only Ashton’s third touch of the ball – but it underlined for the second week in a row the value of a try and the importance of claiming restarts.

“It was really tough to take,” Ford added. “Everybody is confident in the way we’re trying to play, but it’s a mental thing. We’ve had some great wins and then we come back down again.

“I can see how folk would think that [Scotland cannot win big games], but I look back at us winning at Croke Park, drawing with England at Murrayfield, beating South Africa, Australia and Samoa, Argentina away from home, and showing a lot in this World Cup. We can do it but it’s a mental thing.

“It is there in the players but it’s about being there for the whole 80 minutes through a Six Nations tournament or a World Cup campaign. You can’t afford to drop off.

“Everyone is desperate to win in our squad. You can see that in their attitude to go out and play. If something’s not right we’ll pick boys out as players and say ‘look, what are you doing here? It’s not good enough’. That’s come as a squad. When you have a group of boys together for long enough you know that guys are having a go at you because they want the squad to be better.

“It’s about all of us looking for the same goal and if we’re not on top of our game, any one of us, it can cost us, and it probably has in the past two games. We’ve been in control but we’ve let it go. That is the real disappointment of this World Cup for us.”

Scorers: England – Try: Ashton. Con: Flood. Pens: Wilkinson 2. Drop goal: Wilkinson. Scotland – Pens: Paterson 2, Parks. Drop goal: Parks.

England: Foden; Ashton, Tuilagi, Tindall, Armitage; Wilkinson, Youngs; Stevens, Thompson, Cole, Deacon, Lawes, Croft, Moody, Haskell. Replacements: Flood for Tindall (71), Banahan for Wilkinson (75), Wigglesworth for Youngs (73), Corbisiero for Stevens (72), Hartley for Thompson (67), Palmer for Lawes (56), Easter for Moody (53).

Scotland: Paterson; Evans, Ansbro, S. Lamont, Danielli; Jackson, Blair; Jacobsen, Ford, Murray, Gray, Kellock, Strokosch, Barclay, Vernon. Replacements: De Luca for Evans (40), Parks for Jackson (4), Cusiter for Blair (71), Dickinson for Jacobsen (67), Hines for Strokosch (64), Rennie for Barclay (64). Not used: S Lawson.